This isn't included in the Arch [https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/config.x86_64?h=packages/linux stock kernel], but for custom kernels a patch can be found [http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/app-emulation/vmware-modules/files/264-putname.patch?&view=markup here]:

Using the modified BIOS

If and when you decide to modify the extracted BIOS you can make your virtual machine use it by moving it to ~/vmware/Virtual machine name:

$ mv bios440.rom ~/vmware/Virtual machine name/

then adding the name to the Virtual machine name.vmx file:

~/vmware/Virtual machine name/Virtual machine name.vmx

bios440.filename = "bios440.rom"

Copy-On-Write (CoW)

CoW comes with some advantages, but can negatively affect performance with large files that have small random writes (e.g. database files and virtual machine images):

$ chattr +C ~/vmware/Virtual machine name/Virtual machine name.vmx

Note: From the chattr man page: "For btrfs, the C flag should be set only on new or empty files. If set on a file which already has data blocks, it is undefined when the blocks assigned to the file will be fully stable. If set on a directory, only new files will be affected."

Using DKMS to manage the modules

The Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) can be used to manage Workstation modules and to void from re-running vmware-modconfig each time the kernel changes. The following example uses a custom Makefile to compile and install the modules through vmware-modconfig. Afterwards they are removed from the current kernel tree.

A workaround that was posted by "haagch" is that in vmwareStartVmci() you change vmwareLoadModule "$mod" to vmwareLoadModule "$vmci" and in vmwareStartVsock() vmwareLoadModule "$mod" to vmwareLoadModule "$vsock" and the same for vmwareStopVsock() and vmwareStopVmci().

The installer fails to start

If you just get back to the prompt when opening the .bundle, then you probably have a deprecated or broken version of the VMware installer and you should remove it (you may also refer to the uninstallation section of this article):

# rm -r /etc/vmware-installer

Incorrect login/password when trying to access VMware remotely

VMware Workstation 10 provides the possibility to remotely manage Shared VMs through the vmware-workstation-server service. However, this will fail with the error "incorrect username/password" due to incorrect PAM configuration of the vmware-authd service. To fix it, edit /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd like this:

Issues with ALSA output

The following instructions from Bankim Bhavsar's wiki show how to manually adjust the ALSA output device in a VMware .vmx file. This might help with quality issues or with enabling proper HD audio output:

Suspend/Power off the VM.

Run aplay -L

If you are interested in playing 5.1 surround sound from the guest, look for surround51:CARD=vendor-name,DEV=num. If you are experiencing quality issues, look out for a line starting with front.

Open the Virtual machine name.vmx config file of the VM in a text editor, located under ~/vmware/Virtual machine name/, and edit the sound.fileName field, e.g.: sound.fileName="surround51:CARD=Live,DEV=0". Ensure that it also reads sound.autodetect="FALSE".